A number of container designs produced in recent years, particularly containers for pressurized liquids, such as soft drinks or beer, have employed containers having a bottom configuration closely approaching that of a spherical segment. Regardless of whether the container was made of glass or plastic, the spherically shaped bottom portion provided the most efficient design from the standpoint of ability to resist the very high internal pressures developed when the filled container is exposed to elevated temperatures. It is equally desirable that such containers be capable of stable self support, whether they are resting on a conveyor in a filling line or on the table of the ultimate consumer. There has, therefore, developed a number of container designs employing a bottle shaped container having a bottom configuration approaching that of a spherical segment which is inserted in and secured to a cup shaped base member having at least the outer annular rim portion of flat configuration so as to provide stable support for the assembled container.
The development of such combination container designs has concurrently indicated a need for a machine for rapidly and reliably effecting the assemblage of plastic or glass containers into plastic cup shaped base members.